A/N: I hope you like this story just as much as "Emma's 38th Birthday". Thanks for Reading!
"WOOHOO!"
Audrey and Sophie Swan-Mills excitedly ran down the curved stairs with their jackets worn half on their little 5 year old bodies.
"We're ready, Moms!" They flew across the foyer and into the kitchen where Regina was sitting at the table with her eyes closed, cradling a hot cup of coffee, while Emma was behind her massaging her shoulders.
"What's wrong with Mommy," Audrey, their oldest twin asked, concern clearly etched in her brow.
"Your mom is a little nervous about our activity today." Emma smiled, running her hands down past the brunette's shoulders to embrace her from behind.
Their youngest twin Sophie, confidently sauntered up to their seated mother and Regina pushed the chair away from the table as it was obvious Sophie was about to climb onto her lap. That inherent Swan dimple flashed adorably in her cute cheek. "You're not worried we're going to die are you, Mommy?"
Regina chuckled, stroking her daughter's soft brown ponytail. "No. I am not worried that you're going to die." When Audrey sidled up to them, Regina brought her in close too. "I'm just a little queasy at the thought of you two hurting yourselves. I am your mother, after all, and I always feel like it's my job to protect you."
Audrey leaned her head against Regina's arm and smiled adoringly up at her. "We're only learning to ride bicycles for the first time. We're not going to war with Death Eaters."
"Yes, I am well aware of that." Regina gave Emma a humorous stare as the blonde sniggered into her coffee cup.
"Hey, Mom. If you and Voldemort were in a magic fight, I bet you'd win!"
"Oh really? Well thank you for the vote of confidence, Sophie."
"I think so too," Audrey nodded preparing to rationalize her argument. "He only has dark magic and you have both dark and light magic. He has no one to love him but you have all of us and we love you so much, Mom." Regina couldn't help but smile at the truth of that. She had her family who loved her very much.
"Now how did I get so lucky?"
Audrey giggled, "By trying to curse Ma, but cursing Henry instead." The dark haired mother opened her mouth to respond, not able to hide the twinkle of amusement in her eyes. It still astonished her that even her 5 year olds knew of that story. They did not know all of her past, but they knew she was the Evil Queen and had done some very bad things. At first she was very scared to have that conversation but Henry and Emma agreed that the twins would hear about it one way or another, so they approached their history as they did everything else: as a family. Henry was so wonderful that day, sitting with his sisters, an arm around Regina as they had a family picnic and the story was told. Emma had held both girls and she and Regina had answered their questions, and as a family unit, they cohesively faced this together and came out stronger than ever.
Regina need not have worried. Her girls loved her anyway and knew she had changed and was not a villain any more. Since then they would constantly ask to hear the story of how their parents met and they were well versed in most of the events that happened after, including Regina turning out to be one of the town's most prominent heroes.
She turned to her daughter and saw the thoughtful look on Audrey's face as she was mulling something over, but her wife, who was always miraculously on the same wavelength said from above her, "What're you thinking about, Audrey?"
"I was thinking that Voldemort had Nagini, though, to protect him."
"Yeah, and Mom has Ma!" Sophie interjected looking up at Emma while her hands were on Regina's cheeks.
"Oh yeah," Audrey beamed and both daughters looked proudly at Emma.
Emma slanted her head and joked, "I'm pretty sure someone…" and she picked Sophie up out of Regina's arms only to a have Audrey take her place, "… just called me a snake!"
"No!" Sophie was hoisted over Emma's shoulders and tortured by tickling. Her gleeful peals of laughter triggered her sister's. "I meant 'cause you're the saver!"
"Savior," Audrey corrected laughing at her sister and slapping a palm to her forehead.
"That's what I said," Sophie quickly defended and Emma snorted.
"No, you didn't."
"Yes, I did!"
"No, you didn't, worm ball!"
"Yes, I did, banana face!"
"Seriously?" This came from Emma in genuine amazement. "Worm ball and banana face are the best you can come up with? And you call yourself 'Swans'! Hah!"
Regina gave her wife a stern now-don't-you-start look, but soon the kitchen was filled with childish insults and both girls were giggling and out of breath, leaving Regina to shake her head in surrender and smile inwardly. If anyone had told Regina that she would be this happy, could have this kind of happiness a few decades ago, she would have laughed disbelievingly and condescendingly in their face. Emma had helped her through it all; giving her a happy ending, helping her to believe she deserved it. The savior had been with her the whole way through. Okay, maybe not always with her, as in always right beside her; after all there was a pirate and a woodsman to get passed, but it all worked out as it should have in the end.
She was brought back to the present by the loud ruckus taking place in the kitchen and she saw Emma with one daughter dangling over her shoulders by her feet behind her while the other daughter was trying to rescue her sister by trying to pull her down with Emma saying, "Whoa, whoa, WAIT!"
Regina rushed into action before Sophie was dropped on her head. "Okay, okay, enough…"
She went to grab the hanging twin who was clutching Emma around the waist and laughing with her head close to Emma's behind, "Don't fart, Ma, okay? Don't fart!"
"Oh goodness gracious," Regina laughed, "That would be a serious blow, indeed." She grabbed the twin around her waist and assured Emma, "I got her, love." Emma let go of Sophie's ankles and immediately turned to help right her daughter.
Emma blew out an exhausted breath. "You two monsters are getting bigger and heavier every day!" The blonde crossed her arms and ordered in jest, "Stop it."
Regina watched Audrey and Sophie beam lovingly at the blonde and her heart clenched as Emma's hands went to their ponytails and lovingly tugged on them and then held them close to her side; it was captivating to watch.
With her lips turned up into an adoring smile for her family, she closed the distance and unexpectedly wrapped her arms around Emma's neck and poured all her love and thanks into a drawn-out kiss.
When they parted it was to girlish giggles behind hands, "Geez moms, get a room." They both went wide eyed and stared at Audrey, who did not seem phased at all. She shrugged and explained, "That's what Henry always says."
Sophie seconded the sentiment with a chuckle, "Yeah, get a room." She followed her sister to the kitchen table where their bicycle helmets were. They walked to the door with helmets under their arms, stances at the ready, and all smiles. "Let's do this, moms!"
Audrey added with bravado, "Swan-Mills style!" Then they did a secret knuckle-punch, handshake move that they only did with each other and Henry.
Emma chuckled when they swaggered out the back door and grabbed Regina around the waist and pulled her in for a heated open mouth kiss. When Regina stroked the hair at the back of her head and moaned, she was able to deepen the kiss for just a few seconds.
"MOMS!" came a loud screech from outside causing both Regina and Emma to jump.
"Oh, alright!" Regina shouted back. Truthfully, she was really enjoying that kiss.
"Remember when they couldn't walk OR talk yet," Emma joked, grabbing hers and Regina's jackets from the chair. She helped her Queen on with hers and then quickly slipped her own on.
"I do miss those days sometimes."
"Yeah, it was way easier to fool around," Emma wiggled her brows and Regina rolled her eyes with a smile as they closed the door behind them.
[X]
"Okay, now remember. The trick is to keep peddling, okay? And if you feel yourself starting to fall one way, you just turn your handlebar that way. You'll be okay. And don't worry about falling or messing up. What do we always say?"
"We learn from our mistakes!" Audrey and Sophie chorused together looking adorable in their helmets and wearing excited smiles on their faces. They looked from one mother to the other. Emma had been the one giving them pointers while Regina smiled encouragingly, trying to hide the bit of nervousness she felt from surfacing. She had her hands in the pockets of her long jacket and was fine to just let Emma take the reins this time. She had to teach Henry how to ride a bicycle and that was torture enough for her as she wasn't sure at first how to explain it to him.
No one had taught her how to ride one; there were no bicycles in the Enchanted Forest. She just knew how to ride one as an effect of the curse, the same way she knew how to operate a car.
"That's right!" Emma clapped her hands together in preparation and smiled at her twins. "Okay, who wants to go first?"
The girls' mouths twisted pensively and then they gave each other a knowing look. Emma and Regina watched inamusement as they pumped their fists three times in a rock-papers-scissors game. Audrey chose paper, Sophie chose scissors.
"Why do you always choose scissors," Audrey sighed in exasperation, sounding a little too much like Regina, the dark haired mother mused.
"Because… you keep choosing paper," retorted Sophie with a quick shrug that was not unlike Emma.
"Alright, alright." Emma stepped in, "Sophie you go first. Are you ready?"
Sophie straightened her helmet and leant over her handlebars in determination. "Ready."
Emma stepped up behind her bicycle, grabbed the back of the saddle and was just about to push when Sophie stopped her, "Wait Ma, wait!" The younger twin squirmed a bit nervously and Emma leaned over to peer into her face.
"You okay, Soph?"
"Yeah, yeah, but…" Sophie looked the other way at Regina and waved her over. Regina frowned and stepped up to her.
"What, sweetheart?"
"Mom. I won't die…"
Regina swallowed a laugh, "Yes, I know."
"But if I do fall and hurt myself. You'll kiss and magic my boo-boos away, right?"
"Like always, dear." Regina tweaked the tip of her daughter's nose, "… But you won't fall. Just remember everything your mother told you."
Sophie nodded bravely. "Let's do it, Ma."
"Okay," Emma gave Regina a wink and then her daughter a pat on the helmet. "Here we go!" She started to push the bike, running behind it. "Peddle, peddle, peddle!" The blonde almost didn't want to let go but she knew she would have to. In an instant, she became nostalgic and she imagined that this was symbolically yet another way in which she would have to let her daughters go. The first time was when they took their first steps, making them mobile. Now, this was another milestone that she was sending them off on. She never had to go through any of this with Henry and experiencing it with Audrey and Sophie made her chest emotionally tighten.
She let go and with exhilaration and pride she watched as her daughter took off and was peddling and riding like she had been born on the darn thing. This was an amazing feeling. Sophie was laughing and shouting, "Look at me! Look at me! Audrey, Mommy, look!" She looked back to see her eldest daughter straddling her own bicycle and jumping excitedly for her twin, while Regina had her hands fisted over her smiling lips and misty eyes..
"Go Soph! GO!" Audrey was clapping in support of her twin. "Now me, Ma! My turn! My turn!"
"Okay." Emma gave Sophie one last look and then jogged up to her other little girl. "Alright, are you ready, Aud?"
"Yup!"
"Okay, here we go." Emma started at a run again pushing her eldest daughter and much like the other one, Audrey rolled away from her without a hitch. She was shaking her head in utter disbelief watching her girls take to this new experience with ease and elation. She felt suddenly choked up. Her girls were growing up. They were hollering and hooting and having fun riding in circles.
Regina sidled up next to her and slipped her arm through hers and Emma quickly turned to her and kissed her quickly in the middle of the street out of pure pride and delight.
"Look at them, R'gina! Look at our daughters! Our sweet, crazy, clever daughters!"
"Yes, I see. They are doing rather well!"
Emma whipped her head back to stare at her girls, "Rather well? They're doing fantastically well! No troubles at all." Then her grin faded and she studied the girls even further with a crease in her forehead. "They are doing exceptionally, perfectly well." Realization dawned on her and she turned to her wife and chastised her, "REGINA!"
Her wife opened her mouth and guiltily closed it. At least the Queen had the decency to look ashamed.
"You charmed the bikes, didn't you?"
"Well, I…" Regina jammed her hands in her pockets again. "I was concerned for their welfare and didn't want them to get hurt. Henry fell over five times and had angry looking scrapes on his hands and elbows."
Emma saw the look of a mother's concern and her displeasure eased up a bit. Instead she smiled with a sigh and kidded, "Where was this Regina when I was hanging from a rope bridge learning magic?"
"You didn't die."
The woman was so adorable and infuriating at the same time that Emma didn't know whether to kiss her or strangle her, which is usually how their relationship went and really it is what kept things interesting. Being married to Regina Swan-Mills was never boring.
Regina knew that Emma wasn't pleased with what she had done and truthfully she wasn't proud of it either, but the girls were safe. But you can't keep them safe forever. Yes, she knew that. She had chosen to do many questionable things to keep Henry safe and had almost hurt him in the process. On a huff, she displayed her regret and Emma seemed to recognize it for a silent apology because she smiled at her, taking in her wife's slouched shoulders underneath her well-dressed attire, from her sophisticated print scarf to her black high heeled leather boots.
Regina always looked so well put together that Emma always enjoyed messing her up. Ruffling her feathers, getting her hot and bothered, engaging her in some time alone together to give her that well-loved, tousled, clothes wrinkled look.
The brunette noticed her wife's roving eyes ogling her body unexpectedly and the wolfish grin on Emma's lips made Regina shiver in the warm sunshine of the day. Emma Swan tended to run very hot, even in some of her coolest moments, which awed Regina to no end. The Queen could safely say that she had never felt so desirable or been so wanted intensely by anyone else before. Her wife had a voracious sexual appetite, which had pleasantly surprised her during their first time together because it mirrored her own. However, it tended to make an appearance at the least expected of times. Like now, for instance. Regina raised a tempting eyebrow and Emma gave her a naughty look.
"I will deal with you later, Your Majesty."
"Uh-huh…" and then she jumped at the ear-piercing whistle the blonde made with her lips and fingers.
"GIRLS! COME BACK!"
The twins rode up with enormous self-satisfied smiles on their faces. "Look at what we can do, Mommy." They were so proud of themselves she felt sorry for taking that away from them.
"Emma." Regina interrupted her before she could speak. "I got this." Regina walked up to her daughters and crouched down between them. "Girls, get off for a minute." Audrey and Sophie obeyed and watched while Regina waved her hand across her chest and both bikes shimmered in red shine and faded.
"Aw Mom… you used magic." Audrey sighed and Sophie put her bike down and put her hand on Regina's shoulder.
"You were worried, weren't you?"
"Yes, I was… and I am sorry. I should have let you both try on your own. Even mommies mess up too sometimes."
"Yeah… We know." Audrey reassured her with a smile and a hand in the other shoulder. "Ma messes up too."
Emma rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air, shaking her head.
Regina stifled a giggle at her wife's reaction, grabbed both their hands and held them to her lips affectionately. She was ready to help the girls achieve their latest goal. "Okay, ladies… Shall we ride?"
"Yes! YES!" Sophie and Audrey cheered getting on their bikes again.
"So shall we follow the same order as last time?" She stepped behind her youngest daughter's bicycle. "Are you ready, Soph?"
"Bring it on, Mom!" Regina started at a run, no stranger to running in boots with heels, pushing Sophie in front of her.
"That's it, darling, keep going."
"Wait, Mommy, don't let go!"
"You're doing great, Sweetheart."
"Mommy, don't… Mom?"
"You're doing it, Sophie!" Regina watched, trying to catch her breath, as her daughter rode off. Emma and Audrey ran up beside Regina.
"She's doing it!" Audrey yelled! The little girl was swooped up and sandwiched in between her two moms by Emma, both kissing her cheeks in celebration but then Audrey screamed, "SOPHIE, LOOK OUT!"
Regina and Emma turned just in time to see their daughter howl right before she rolled into a hedge.
"Holy Crap!" Regina heard little Audrey swear a word she knew for a fact Emma and Henry let occasionally slip, but was already sprinting down the street too concerned for Sophie to care about correcting her. Emma got there only a second before and pulled the bike away.
"Soph?" Emma was reaching down to grab her daughter.
"Sophie?!" Regina was fearful and felt like her heart had jumped into her throat at seeing her youngest daughter crash. She tried to help Emma, but her wife already had the little girl in her arms and Sophie was shaking.
"Hey, kid. You're okay, right?"
"Sophie! Is she okay, Ma?" Audrey grabbed Regina's hand and held it while standing in front of her.
"Honey?" Regina placed a hand on Sophie's back and rubbed it as she shook.
Then they heard Sophie speak, "That… was… AWESOME!" Everyone froze and Emma, with a dumbstruck look, pulled her daughter back to look at her face. Sophie was bursting with laughter. "Mom, Aud, did you see me?! Did you see me crash? That was EPIC!"
Regina chewed her bottom lip and rolled her eyes and Emma just shook her head at her daughter with her eye brows raised.
Audrey was laughing now too. "It was TOTALLY YouTube worthy Soph. Henry would be so proud!"
"Oh Geez…" Emma snickered putting her daughter on her feet. "Any scratches, broken bones, anything?
"No. I'm good," Sophie reassured and then she gasped, "We should have recorded it for Henry!"
Emma smirked at her wife while Regina stood there shaking her head and frowning in confusion at her daughters. The older woman reflected on the craziness of her children and blamed it on the genes of their other mother. "I swear sometimes I feel like I'm the only Cheerio in a bowl of Fruit Loops."
"Can I do that again? This time recording it for Henry?"
"No!" Both mothers said at the same time.
"Besides, it's Audrey's turn now," Regina pointed out and felt her eldest twin squeeze her hand in excitement. "And then after that, we'll go in for lunch and you can ride more after you've eaten." The twins hung their heads down at first, but were excited at the prospect of riding after. Emma held Regina's hand as they all walked back to Audrey's bike, laying on its side in the distance. Sophie pushed her bike beside them. "What do you two want for lunch?"
The girls spiritedly blurted out, "Grilled cheese!"
Regina groaned and glared at her wife who wiggled her eyebrows mirthfully at her and she sighed with her lips curving upward, "Turkey and cucumber sandwiches it is," which earned her three sets of groans in return. As Audrey ran off to fetch her bike, Sophie gave chase pushing hers. Emma shifted and embraced Regina from behind and they were walking in tandem up the street.
"You know you're just going to end up making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, right?" she breathed into Regina's ear causing the brunette to slightly tremble. She also felt Emma pull her in tighter and give her neck a quick kiss.
"Shut up." Yes, she knew, and she ignored her wife's chuckling all the way back to where their daughters stood waiting.
THE END